Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-01-07
THE CINCH ON BASSETT
The Jury Finds a Verdict of
Guilty in Forty Minutes.
HE GETS FIVE YEARS AND $500
The Eloquent Argument OF the
Counsel on Either Side-Nr. Dick
son ScOrches Bnssctt-The Cnse
VIII be Appealed.

The District Court was crowded with an
audience eager to listen to the arguments in
the Bassett polygamy case yesterday. |
The ball was opened by Ogden Hiles for the
prosecution. He characterized the course
and methods of the defense to be rs various, |
clandestine and shifting, as were ever
adopted by any one trying to escape punish
ment. Defendant being shining light in
the church, the jury should closely scruti-
nize the testimony. He denounced the de- |
PENDANT as a charaoterless scamp and liar
beyond any reasonable doubt. If, n bishop
now, he should continue in grace he might
hope to become an apostle, a prophet
seer and a revelator, running through the
whole gamut of hierarchical preferment.
Only the evidence of two witnesses was to
be considered, that of the two wives, which
the speaker briefly reviewed. He laid
special stress on Bassett's solemn and de-
liberate confession of his marriage to Kate
Smith. The testimony regarding this was
uncontradicted evidence. Defendant had
even repeated said declaration afterwards
Such admissions and confessions were
evidence of the very highest degree and
nature. Mr.. Hiles detailed the circum-
stances of said confession, as already given
in the DEMOCRAT, and stigmatized the
iniauitous manner of the divorce proceed
ings and Bassett's fraudulent practices.
The speaker, with biting sarcasm, held up
the character of Bassett, lone of the
anointed of heaven, chosen for the saliva
ton of this people," Whitening reference
was made to the gypsy jargon of the
N INa
people yet who had not to go to that book
to find out what is right and wrong; of such
was Mrs. Sarah Ann Bassett. Her expert
ence proved the necessity of the strict en-
forcement of the laws of the land; her
heart was not the only one made to bleed
by that dreary superstition-a superstition
which must be ever struck at and with n
mailed hand. Couusei gave
scATn1>. 04NUNoIATIoN
OF polygamy, the filth Of which all the Ian
guages in the world are not able to express.
Mrs. Bassett had strain of good blood in
her which rose above her faith, and the
speaker felt to say God bless such blood
and down with the faithn' Kate Smiths
testimony should be taken with great eau
ton; her denial of marriage before 1856 was
given with mental reservation such as II
never was Notwithstanding to your
IDEAS" or something like it, The marriage
by the Justice of the Peace was contracted
to throw people OH tnelr guard.
j. Il. Rawlins followed for the defense,
first speaking of the crusade being waged
against the prevalent practice of polygamy.
The defense was embarrassed, seeing the
heavy burden of sins of his own and
others which was piled upon the prisoner at
the bar. Counsel, after deploring the heavy
influences against one charged with polyg-
amy, tried to invalidate the testimony of
the confession, and deplored the efforts
made to sweep away all other testimony as
u mere bagatelle and the denunciation of
Bassett by the prosecution. Had the de-
PENDANT committed the awful crime against
his wife? In his attempt to prove the mega
tive, counsel reviewed the evidence of the
witnesses, endeavoring especially to put the
blame of the separation upon the first wife
Bassett, so counsel tried to make believe
might have stated that he was married tC
some else, out of a teasing spite, or an eXas-
peration. 1t might have been in domestic
quarrel. Mr.. Rawlins followed out this line
of defense, to make it all appear as "pout.
1t could not be probable that defendant
would have made such n confession to his
wife. Counsel claimed that there had been
irreooncilible differences between the two
which led to their separation, the justitioa-
ton of which Mrs. b. sought to find in the
accusation against him. He undertook, in
sarcastic language, to offset the pleadings
for the "broken-hearted" woman with APP
peals for sympathy for the husband, whom
counsel claimed to be
THE wRoNGED PARTY;
Contrasted the testimony of the two Mrs
Bassetts, urging the unimpeachable
might be doubted on account of her loving
interest for the defendant, there was the
vindctiveness to be accounted for in the
first wife, whose interest was against him
The surroundings and influences of both
women had been the same, hence their
Nv WI Mr Rnmlinc do nnal
the remarks of the prosecution concerning
the Mormon Church as "buncombe," and, in
a strong peroration, protested against the
prosecution bringing belief into the case
what humbuggery and fustian we have
to deal with when people are charged with
unlawful cohabitation or polygamyn' He
also complained of the prosecution having
undue advantages in the conduct of polyg
amy trials.
Afternoon Session.
densely crowded audience listened to
the forcible closing argument of District
Attorney Dickson. He said he would re-
frain from appealing to prejudice, but
simply review the evidence and thereupon
ask for verdict of guilty. He denounced
az utterly unprofessional and unwarranteC
some of the remarks of Rawlins, and re
PEELED with Indignation charges against the
prosecution and courts IN general as tC
prejudice in polygamy trials. No case coulC
be pointed at of an innocent man being
convicted under the Edmunds law.
Rawlins frequently interrupted the speak
err, against which the latter protested.
The evidence against Bassett was such
that it would of necessity result in verdict
of guilty, were the accused a Gentle il
lowly or high station, even the Judge on the
bench. In stirring language, Dickson de
picted the desolation and grief of the be-
trayed and forsaken wife. How was Mrs
~. tl,A If
would marry Kate Smith in 1886, as the de
Tense would have us believe. Kate's testi-
mony was held up in the light of its incon
sistency, especially her refusal, in the Crane
Jury room to tell whether or not she haC
been married before 1886. Dickson sternly
reproved the defense in their making sport
eff Mrs. Sarah Ann Bassett's grief and sor
row, and holding her up as a termagant and
shrew, and also witheringly excoriated the
.'gallant husband Bassett, who allowed the
misrepresentation of his first wite's charac
ter, and was posing as the injured innocent
If Bassett had only lied to his wife on thai
August 14th, he was
CHABACTRRLEss sCoUNDREL,
To be whipped with a scourge of scorpions
and to lie in the Penitentiary the length O.
his natural days. Such an assumption
however, was utterly incredible. Which
ever way, the defendants conduct for in
famous cruelty was without parallel in The
history of law. In sOul-touching words the
speaker depicted the fate of the unhapp,
wife from their marriage down to their sepa
ration, when the tragedy closed with the tru,
womanly declaration, ~ can live with nc
man in polygamy" and with the faithless
husband turning on his heel. Basset
had counted upon the priesthoods influence
to keep her from disclosing his plurality. In
scathing terms Dickson dissected the COW
ardly conduct af the defendant. "a Saint
Bishopl If heaven be filled with Saint,